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Ok then...on with the second chapter!
Disclaimer: Nope, still dun own Yu-Gi-Oh!
Chapter 2: Alone in the Dark
'I can't believe I still remember that day,' Seto groaned inwardly as he exited the KaibaCorp building. The glass doors swung closed behind him. 'Well...I suppose that day will remain in my memories forever, come to think of it. How could it not?'
Today, he had had a flashback of that terrible day three years ago. Seto had thought that would never happen again, the flashbacks. He sighed and slid into his limo as his chauffeur opened the door for him.
"...Tea...she's dead."
The horrible reality of it hit him full in the face. It was worse than a bucket of ice-cold water dumped on his head, or a thousand hard slaps. This sensation of falling down an abyss - an abyss of loneliness - could not be compared to anything.
Seto turned sharply and stared out the window. "That can't be true," he
stated simply. How could it be? His Tea? Gone? Forever? The roads outside swam before him. He felt detached from his body; a bemused observer looking into this grave scene.
"Kaiba, I'm sorry. This must be really hard on you, but it is real. None of us want to believe it either, but I just received the news-" Yugi's voice cracked as he finally started to cry quietly.
Seto needed to handle this by himself. "Thank you for telling me," he mumbled before walking out of the shop. He headed back home and quickly entered his office, shutting the door behind him.
About an hour later, Mokuba stuck his head in the door. What was Seto still doing inside his office? His big brother had, after all, promised to spend today with him. "Seto?" he called. His brother's chair was turned against him and Seto seemed to be looking out the window.
When Seto did turn around, Mokuba gasped. His older brother's face was soaked with tears and more tears were streaming down. "What's the matter, Seto?!" Mokuba asked very much alarmed. He had never, ever seen his brother cry like this. Not even when their parents died or when they suffered under their adopted father's cruelties. What could be wrong?
"...Tea's dead, Mokuba." Seto answered hoarsely.
Mokuba widened his eyes. "T-Tea?" He couldn't believe it. The only person that his brother had actually opened up to and probably - for Seto had never actually told him - loved was gone from this world. "I-I-I'm sorry," he whispered.
Seto took a tissue from a box and attempted to clear his face of the tears, but was unsuccessful. "Funny, isn't it?" he asked as he tugged more tissues out of the box. "The tears...they can't seem to stop."
Mokuba's own eyes started to fill up with tears. Mostly because of Tea's death - for she had been like an older sister and maternal figure to him - partly because of his older brother, and partly because this world was so unfair and sometimes fate tended to remove the best people from the world.
After that, Seto had dedicated all his time to working on and perfecting Kaiba Corp to the utmost. He never smiled, and his icy look on his eyes had returned. Of course, he was still kind to his younger brother, but he never smiled. Little Mokuba mourned for Tea, too.
Seto stepped out of the limo and ascended on the elevator to his penthouse. His butler bowed and handed him today's mail. All the junk mail and bills had been already taken care of by the butler.
The brown-haired CEO settled on a couch and opened an ivory envelope, handwritten in fancy penmanship to him from the CEO of Mazaki Corp. 'I thought he lived in New York City,' Seto thought as he saw that the sender's address was from Tokyo, Japan. He opened the envelope and read:
To: Mr. Seto Kaiba,
We cordially invite you to the moving of Mazaki Corporation Headquarters gala. This event will be held on Saturday, June 28th from 6:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. at the Mazaki residence. We hope you would be kind and bestow us with your attendance. Thank you.
Yours,
Mr. & Mrs. Gonshiro Mazaki
'I hate these 'galas'. What's the point?' Seto glared at the note before tossing it to the side. He reached over and took a sip of the cool drink that his butler had set on the table next to him. 'I'll see what I have in my own schedule first,' he checked his schedule. 'Well, aren't you lucky, Mr. Mazaki? I have nothing planned for Saturday, June 28, 2003. Fine, I'll attend, only because these things come in handy sometimes in business dealings.'
"Oh, you're home, Seto?" Mokuba asked as the teen passed him in the living room. "You're early," he called as he made his way into the kitchen. The gangly 15-year old returned with a can of soda. "I have that overnight party for my soccer team today. I'm leaving in a fifteen minutes," Mokuba opened the can and took a drink. Seto nodded.
Mokuba had grown almost unrecognizably over the past three years. He was tall - almost as tall as Seto - and had cut his once long black hair considerably, and although it was still unruly, it was, as Mokuba had once described it, 'designed to be that way'. In Seto's opinion, Mokuba spent too much time in sports and looks and popularity, but he did keep his grades up so that he was valedictorian this year graduating from Japan's best middle school, so Seto didn't complain.
"Yes, what time will you be returning tomorrow?" He asked Mokuba, who was now leaning against the frame of the doorway to the living room, facing him.
Mokuba shrugged. "Oh, I don't know. It ends at noon, but we're planning to take the girls to the movies so I might not be back until around three."
"Just be home before too long," was Seto's reply before he headed into the home office.
Mokuba had become a lot more distant from him over the years, but he knew he was to blame for this. After Tea's death, he had driven almost all of his energy into his company. Mokuba had had to grow up by himself most of the time. Seto sighed before starting work.
He had to admit upon coming to view after the gate at the front, that the Mazaki residence was enormous, even compared to his own spacious mansion. He could tell the place had been expensively designed to perfection. Everything from the manicured lawn to the classy mansion stated so.
Already, various vehicles had parked themselves in the front. People were going into the mansion. Inside, where the celebration was to be held was a great ballroom. There was a fancy marble staircase, from which Mr. And Mrs. Mazaki were descending to greet the guests.
Fifteen minutes in, Seto was already bored. Occasionally, he conversed with other people, but he was starting to regret attending this at all. Suddenly, a silence swept over the room. Seto looked around to find the cause of it. Then, he spotted a person descending the marble staircase gracefully.
'So, is this the daughter?' he thought as the girl turned her head to face the crowd.
He could swear his heart skipped a beat.
